&quotWith inventive strings, lyrical descriptions and sophisticated imagery, Brett has created a myriad of complex worlds to perplex and stimulate the reader."  Vancouver Sun.

Tanganyika

Literature & Fiction

Brett, Brian

United States

Thistledown Press

The two sections of this collection retrace the author's androgynous childhood and beyond, unearthing both laughter and wounds while travelling from the hills of Italy and the back country of China to the magical landscape of the Gulf Islands.

Uproar's Your Only Music: New Poems/Memoir

Poetry

Exile Editions

Born to be an outsider because of a rare genetic disorder, Kallmann syndrome, Brian Brett lived an androgynous childhood of abuse and sexual harassment. In his teen years he slid into the waterfall of poetry, becoming an auto-didactic polymath, writing—as he says—“sideways” to the academic poetry of his times. Though raised into manhood in the back of a bootlegger’s truck, Brett, as the hometown outsider, took on the outside world, delving into ancient alchemical mysteries, the poètes maudit of Jean-Arthur Rimbaud’s days, the rhythms of various tribal cultures, the talking blues, the rhapsodic illuminations of jazz, all the while gathering field notes from nights around camp fires. To Your Scattered Bodies Go is a collection of poems written over the past twenty years, a collection that speaks with a child’s open directness, in fierce ironies, a sometimes bent logic, a justifiable fear of his body, of loves won and lost, and the hallelujahs of a man standing on the lip of the grave. Brett has a unique spirit, a unique musical voice.

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Brian Brett’s farm on Salt Spring Island is affectionately known as Trauma Farm. There, he raises chickens, pigs, cows, sheep, and goats, tends an extensive orchard and vegetable garden, concocts fabulous meals from the bounties of the farm, and has various misadventures. This funny and thought-provoking memoir traces one day on Trauma Farm. In it, Brett explores the natural history of the small mixed farm, meditates on the perfection of the egg, offers critiques of factory farms and the slaughtering industry, muses on the uses and misuses of gates, and ponders the constant presence of death as he goes about the activities of farming birthing lambs, contending with rats, helping an aged horse to his death. Underlain with deep knowledge of biology and botany, this erudite, witty, and passionate book is an unforgettable portrait of the issues all farms face in this age of industrialization and homogenization.

Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

Greystone Books

Beginning naked in the darkness Brian Brett takes us on a journey through a summer’s day that also tells the story of his affectionately named Trauma Farmexploring the garden, orchards, fields, the mysteries of live-stock and poultry, and the social intricacies of rural communities. Both a memoir and a natural history of the small mixed farm, this eighteen-year-long day travels forward and backward in time, taking us all the way from Babylon to globalization and demonstrating the importance of both tall tales and rigorous science as Brett contemplates the perfection of the egg and the nature of soil or offers a scathing critique of agribusiness and the modern slaughterhouse. Whether discussing the uses and misuses of gates, examining the energy of seeds, or bantering with his family and neighbors, Brett remains aware of the miracles of life, birth, and death and the ecological paradoxes that confront the rural world every day. Threaded with a deep knowledge of biology and botany, Trauma Farm is an erudite, poetic, passionate, and frequently hilarious portrait of rural life and a rich and thought-provoking meditation on the modern world.

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as Whaddya know?” and announcing Party time!” when guests showed up at Brett’s farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the parrot is a lot more complex than he thought. Simultaneously a biography of this singular bird and a history of bird/dinosaurs and the human relationship with birds, Tuco also explores how we other” the worldabusing birds, landscapes, and each otherincluding Brett’s own experience with a rare genetic condition that turned his early years into an obstacle course of bullying and nurtured his affinity for winged creatures. The book also provides an in-depth examination of our ideas about knowledge, language, and intelligence (including commentary from Tuco himself) and how as we learn more about animal languages and intelligence we continually shift our definitions of them in order to retain our superiority.” As Brett says, Whaddya know? Not much. I don’t even know what knowledge is. I know only the magic and

Tuco and the Scattershot World: A Life with Birds

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Pets & Animal Care

<div>For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as "Whaddya know?" and announcing "Party time!" when guests showed up at Brett's farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the parrot is a lot more complex than he thought. Simultaneously a biography of this singular bird and a history of bird/dinosaurs and the human relationship with birds, Tuco also explores how we "other" the world--abusing birds, landscapes, and each other--including Brett's own experience with a rare genetic condition that turned his early years into an obstacle course of bullying and nurtured his affinity for winged creatures. The book also provides an in-depth examination of our ideas about knowledge, language, and intelligence (including commentary from Tuco himself) and how as we learn more about animal languages and intelligence we continually shift our definitions of them in order to retain our "superiority." As Brett says, "Whaddya know? Not much. I don't even know what knowledge is. I know only the magic . . . and the mysteries." By turns provocative, profound, hilarious, and deeply moving, this fascinating memoir will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned.</div>

Community & Culture

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brett, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brett, Brian

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brett, Brian. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Tanganyika

Uproar's Your Only Music: New Poems/Memoir

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life

Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life

Tuco and the Scattershot World: A Life with Birds

Tuco and the Scattershot World: A Life with Birds